checking in

hey everyone -  how's it going? i just wanted to check in and say hello. my surgery on friday went well and ended up clocking in at 5 hours. my PS is very pleased with what he was able to do and so far, i am as well. of course i can't see much of my backside and its all swollen and purple but there is definitely an improvement. anyway i'm very sore and really trying not to push myself to cause complications. my mom was with me the first few days, which made things easier, but now that she is gone and i have to do more things for myself, its getting more difficult. i spend the majority of the day in bed. i know i shouldn't be anywhere near the scale, but of course i cannot help it. i am about 15 pounds higher than i was morning of surgery. i know logically that most of this is swelling but lying in bed munching crackers and teddy grahams certainly isn't helping my cause. its so funny because even if i eat more than i want to normally, i rationalize it and don't feel bad about it because at least i'm working out but when you take away the ability to work out, things really shift. i'm trying not to get too hung up on it because there isn't much i can do about it now (although i did consider getting out my hand weighs and doing some upper body stuff last night - really had to check in with myself at that point and stop the insanity). i hope everyone is doing well.

Give your scale to a friend-- and tell them to bring it back in three weeks or so. Get well before doing anything else! Let that body heal! The numbers you are seeing now mean nothing! You may not be able to move at all right now, but I bet soon your surgeon will clear you for walking. Walk at night when it's cool so you don't get too sweaty (or get too much sun on your scars) and just a bit at a time. If nothing else it'll prevent you from throwing a clot. But give your body a rest! You'll be so much happier later!

yeah, i wouldn't make a good invalid either! One thing good for me is that usually pain meds take hunger away for me! Hey btw, kick me some and we'll tak more about that...LOL The bad thing is that on the other hand, when i am sick i actually think "maybe if I ate something..."  LOL 15# up = whoa that would be scary.  I am very glad to see your post, glad you are still kicking.

Hi Andrea, I just wanted to jump in a wish you a speedy recovery.  I know I'm a little late getting to the party, but what kind of PS did you have?  Anyway, I agree that you shouldn't worry about the scale, give yourself a scale-free vacation until you're up and running again.  Take care of yourself.

thanks for the well wishes. basically i have had everything done overthe past 4 years but this most recent one was the inner thigh lift w/ some random lipo-ing. it was a revision to the thigh lift i had last summer and the pain isn't nearly as bad as last year, but it pretty much sucks since you use your thighs in everything! i had a lot of complications with the procedure last year (hence the need for a revision) so i'm really just hoping for an uneventful recovery and i know i need to not push things.

Andrea -- Question.  When you have a "revision" to fix something that was worked on previously, do you get some kind of a discount or is it considered a new surgery and you have to pay full price?

it depends. depends on the surgeon, the body part and cause of the revision. if its something they did wrong, then yes, they will usually drop the surgeon's fee. also if you are having other things done at the same time, they are more likely not to charge for the a small revision.but usally, even if you get the surgeon's fee knocked off, you'll still have to pay OR and anesesia fees. some PSs will have standard agreement about how they handle revisions. regardless its a very touchy subject as you can imagine. PS is a very inexact process and the way you personally heal and scar over isn't something that the surgeon can control.

personally, i am all for paying for revisions in most cases. i am also sort of against insurance paying for PS but thats a whole other issue. its not my PSs fault that i had the complications i did and it wasn't like i could not live with how it looked. i just wanted it to look better. plus i believe he is supplying his time and amazing talent and he deserves to be paid for that. a lot of this is based on the fact that i have a very strong relationship with my surgeon and i know he is incredibly perfectionistic and does the best possible job he can. he also has given me lots of small revisions for free during the time i have used him (i've had 4 separate surgeries with him). in fact he did a free in office revision in november to try and address the issues i was having and didn't chage me for that. he thigh lift is THE most difficult surgery for a PS to perform because he basically has to sew upside down (mental picture) and it is the most prone to complications. okay off my soap box for now...